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Littleton police chief answers to data breach

By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/29/2013 07:17:37 AM EST

LITTLETON -- Local police logs to be posted online will have the police chief's personal stamp of approval on it from now on to help prevent another leak of sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers.

Littleton Police Chief John Kelly said Monday that the inadvertent release of personal information of more than 100 people earlier this month stemmed from "strictly a personal error."

Last week, the Police Department took down a police log covering activities between Jan. 7-13, which contained a combination of names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers of people who were in contact with police during that period.

The list includes those who were stopped by police in their vehicle, were arrested, were involved in a motor-vehicle accident in Littleton, required any medical attention that police responded to or reported a crime. Police noticed the breach when they were alerted by a news organization.

Kelly said department staff selected the wrong menu in the computer software when extracting the record to create the log.

The department uses in-house software to maintain an internal daily log with all available details concerning each incident, and also to summarize the data and black out personal information to generate a public log.

With the assistance of an IT manager, the department has changed the format of the log to prevent personal information from mistakenly being uploaded, according to Kelly.

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In addition, the staff now must have the log reviewed by Kelly or Deputy Chief Matthew King for approval before uploading it to the website.

The information breach affected 104 people, including 47 Littleton residents. The Police Department began contacting all 104 people and reached 60 percent of them by either directly talking to them or leaving a message for them, according to Kelly.

The other 40 percent did not have a landline or their numbers were unlisted, he said in his email to The Sun. Littleton officers have also hand-delivered a letter from Kelly to the 47 Littleton residents, he added. They also drove to post offices in neighboring towns to mail the same letter to those who live in those communities. Kelly expected those who live in other parts of the state or outside the state would receive the letter Monday afternoon.

The police log was posted from Jan. 14-24. Police have not received any reports of fraudulent activity on any of the affected residents' accounts or attempts of accounts being opened, Kelly said. Kelly has met a few residents concerning the incident and has received about a dozen phone inquiries, he said.

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